Somewhere.....Out there.....beneath the pale moonlight......

Our awesome Elder Merrill has been out in the field for a week now! We were (ok, MOM was) on pins and needles to finally hear from him and see how life as a missionary out of the MTC is going. So it was pretty exciting to get his email:

Heya everybody!

    How are you all doing? I'm fine here. Things are good. I have alot of things that I could tell you about my first week here but I can't. In order to email you guys I need a library card that allows me an hour, but I don't have a library card yet. I'm in the process of getting one that should allow me an hour long time, but I only have 15 minutes as of now. I just want to say that I love you all and things are going great here. My Spanish is coming along fine and I'm in good health. The place I'm staying at is good and I have a great companion. Things are starting out a little fast and a little slow. The funny thing is, you have slow days, but fast weeks. Anyway, I hope this reaches you guys and that you all are doing good back in Arizona.  I know that a mission may seem like a long time, but I think it'll be over before I know it. I gotta go now! Love you all!

                                                                                                                   -Elder Ethan Merrill 

So as you can see, Elder Merrill is in good spirits and seems to be adjusting to his new adventure fairly well.  But, with the short time on the computer, we didn't get any information on those pesky little details like "Hey Elder Merrill, where exactly in South Carolina are you????"  

 

Mom's guessing game for this week.....which part of South Carolina is Elder Merrill in??? It's a mystery still but he is obviously doing well so mom will relax and add a library card to her personal prayer list :) What a joy this young man is to us!!!!

Temporary Change in Travel plans

Today was a highlight for the Merrill family because Elder Merrill got to call us from the airport, HOORAY!!!!

Well, let's backtrack a bit and give an update. Elder Merrill had also given us a 5 minute call (oh yes, it was exactly 5 minutes, lol) on Thursday to let us know that his visa to go to Argentina had not arrived and so he is going to serve temporarily in the Columbia, South Carolina mission while he waits for it.   

So today is his actual travel day and so he got to call us on his way out. He rang us from the Atlanta airport as he had some time to wait for his final flight.  

"Thanks for the alarm clock you sent me mom. It came in very handy this morning when I had to wake up at 3:15 to get ready to leave for the airport!  It's a good thing I've had to get up at 6:30 for the past 2 months so it wasn't too bad waking up that early."

We talked about how fast the training time at the MTC had gone by and how interesting this temporary assignment to the southeast will be.

"On the flight to Atlanta, we couldn't watch movies or shows of course, but we could watch the map of the flight and see where South Carolina is. It was a 3 hour flight to Atlanta and then we have a 1 hour flight up to Columbia."

We asked about the other missionaries in his district:

"Well, all 8 of us are getting temporarily assigned because none of our visas came in.  5 of us are going to South Carolina, 1 is going to Wisconsin, 1 is going to Colorado and 1 is going to Mississippi.  I feel sorry for the guy going to Colorado because he has never flown before and ends up getting the shortest flight out of all of us!"

I said it would be cool if the missionary going to Wisconsin ran into Elder Pinter, who is a friend of ours from our time in England and is serving his mission up there.  

"That reminds me mom, one of my instructors, a guy named Steven Hopper, served with Stuart in Maryland. He saw my name and after we talked he realized that he served with my brother!"

What a small world, too funny! I reminded Elder Merrill to send us his contact information as soon as possible and he said he would.  It was so unbelievably good to hear his voice! He is happy and well and excited about getting out into the mission field! 

Heading into the last week at the MTC...

Hooray, another letter has arrived from Elder Merrill.  He sounds like he is in good spirits and that things are plugging right along! He is curious as to what everyone is doing here back at home:

How are Jess and Brad doing? Settling in I hope? It's weird to think of them as living somewhere else, but Jess was never really around the house in the first place, so I guess it's really not much of a change. I hope life is going well over there, I heard about Kyle's room getting a little wrecked, fortunately,  there won't be a shortage of sleeping places around the house. I wonder how Stuart rearranged my room? No doubt it has more tech stuff in it now, and I hope that he's got plenty of room in it.

He also had a bit of unwelcome news for Mom:

 I have a spot of bad news... They don't let you call home on Mothers Day  I've underlined this so you clearly understand that I won't be calling home on May 12th. The MTC wanted to make sure that we told you so they wouldn't be getting a bunch of calls. lol.

While I (mom) clearly understand the impossible logistics of 3 pay phones and an average of 2500 missionaries, it was still a huge disappointment. On the upside though, he gets to call from the airport when he leaves the MTC, but it will be a bit sadder this Mother's Day.

Finally Elder Merrill made a request this week:

  Hey, I don't know if you can do this or not, but if you can, listen closely:

1.can you send me a pillow? the ones here are horrible, I won't have one in Argentina, and it'll be nice to have something from home. 

2. send one of the pillows I normally used. not the tempurpedic pillow or whatever, but a normal pillow with a normal pillow case.

3. have fun in china! 

So I have got  him a new pillow and a pillowcase. I have had several people sign or draw on the pillow case, so I think he will enjoy it. Now I have to dash out and mail it immediately, in case he heads out this week.  His visa for Argentina still has not come in yet (almost 3 months now since all the paperwork was turned in for that....) so there is a possibility that he may go to a stateside mission temporarily. Next week should be full of all kinds of exciting news as to what he will be doing next! Stay tuned!